We've Been Set Up!
by Colorado Kid
Summary: Sandy has been abducted by the Scorpions....can the TBirds find her in time? Will they survive the Scorpions? Chapter 3 just finished.....
1. Plot of a Scorpion

**Grease is owned by Paramount Pictures. I'm in it for fun, not moolah.  
  
We've Been Set Up!  
  
Rydell, California, 1958.....nightfall.......  
  
Rydell High School, for a short while, was biding its time.....for a holiday called Labor Day had befallen California once again.  
  
Labor Day, a gentle day, that set youth free from school and all its mundane demands....where serenity awaited in forms of the impeccably simplest pleasures....drive ins, malt shops, exquisite beaches.....sunshine, hamburgers, French fries, chocolate and strawberry milkshakes....rock n' roll at its prime.....serenading the air of Rydell......  
  
For many young kids, Labor Day was freedom from stress.......  
  
.....But for others......  
  
........Labor Day meant labor, indeed.......  
  
Danny Zuko was sitting at home in his room, just coming back from the usual girl-hunting at the drive-in......this time it would be his pals, Kenickie, Sonny, Doody and Putzie, not him. The TBirds, he and his boys, went out to the drive-in, yet usually, the cinematic feature involved didn't matter in the slightest. They came, usually anyone other than Danny and Kenickie in the trunk, and upon arrival, the playful hunt began......  
  
Only this time Danny was exceptionally blessed, for he needed to hunt no more.....he had found exactly the woman he had been searching for all his life.....  
  
Sandy......  
  
She was his every wish come true, his angel, his queen, his goddess, she was everything he'd ever longed for....she was his Sandy, his everything he'd ever wanted in a lover, his everything he'd ever dreamed of.  
  
His dreams came true, he could simply not believe it......ever since the day she emerged out of nowhere, from the depths of mystical Australia. He had almost lost his love at the hands of circumstance during the summer before the school year began. She had to return to the sensuous depths from whence she came after a summer they'd spent together, a summer of endless wonder Danny had never believed he'd experienced, the summer that lasted into infinity.  
  
Love had delivered her to him once again from those wondrous frontiers of Australia the moment the school year found Rydell High.....she dreamed of endless wonder stretching out from the summer in whence it had once been confined. The TBirds, however, were around at the time, and that fateful night he had almost lost her, oblivious to the phenomena which had brought back a treasure he thought he would never again taste the splendor of, by the tempting hands of machisimo, an element that forbids a man to claim such a wonder in front of his own friends.  
  
She had lingered about the school love had delivered her to, where machisimo had, alas, abandoned her, heart broken for a time, but not for long. She lingered about the halls and lunch spots, cavorting with her dear friends, the Pink Ladies....she dated other men, but none in the school could possibly compare to Danny Zuko . It was as simple as that.  
  
He had lingered about with his friends......it could never be an alternative to revealing his true self to the only woman he'd ever want or love, even in front of the rest of the TBirds. Even when he attempted to reconcile with Sandy for falling into machisimo's temptation, circumstance had given her a new love, an athlete. By the hand of circumstance, Danny would have to work harder to let her be eternally his and the lover of no one else.  
  
He decided to get involved in the jock world, the world of the athlete......he was awkward amidst those well honed in sports....he simply felt out of place, a piece of a puzzle....but of a different puzzle, not that of the athletes of Rydell.  
  
He desperately wanted to show that he could be her new lover's equal.  
  
He longed to be his equal.  
  
By the hand of love, Sandy had grown tired of the athlete she'd found, and heart at last begged her to simply fall into the arms of Danny. And she did.  
  
Not a single thing could separate Danny and Sandy since.........  
  
Until.....  
  
Ring....ring.....the kitchen reverberated with rings, reverberated......  
  
Ring.....ring.......  
  
His parents wouldn't be coming home until very late at night, they were out eating at a fancy restaurant.  
  
He hurried down to the kitchen and picked up the phone.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Zuko?" a stiff, formal voice yet one much too spine-chillingly familiar slid into his ear.  
  
Danny's turquoise eyes suddenly froze open wider than the plains of Colorado.  
  
The mysterious voice's name spilled from his lips clumsily......  
  
".........Balmudo?"  
  
"I don't have time for intellectual banter, so I'll be very direct. Sandy Olsson's been kidnapped."  
  
"Huh? Balmudo....."  
  
"She has been abducted. Come to the abandoned warehouse on Bleeker Street or she'll be in the Kingdom of Heaven."  
  
Sweat began to splash and burst out of Danny's every pore.....a sweatdrop began to trickle from his very hairline, down his forehead.....tracing his nose......  
  
Gentleman, he whispered to himself. Be a gentleman. Sandy's guaranteed to stay alive that way. Knowing Balmudo, he's bound to take a knife to her if I'm anything other than gentlemanly.  
  
"Would you mind if I had a chitchat with her?"  
  
"I'm terribly sorry to tell you that Sandy's a little speechless right now........"  
  
Danny's T-Bird instinct told him that she was more than likely bound and gagged........Balmudo was certainly certain not to free her anytime soon.  
  
His spine began to engage in a samba.....  
  
"Did you treat her like a lady, Balmudo?"  
  
"Whaddya mean, did I treat her like a lady?"  
  
"She ain't exactly a scorpion, like you and your men."  
  
"Watch your tongue, Zuko, if you want her to live. I can personally assure you, she's completely unharmed. She's in the ropes but other than that, she's not got a cut or scratch on her. I'm tired so I'll leave her alive, despite you forgetting yourself. But not for long.....unless you and your boys care to attend the party, with nothing but your leather jackets, your ducktails, and your cigarettes."  
  
A cold sweat enveloped Danny's entire body.  
  
He gulped as quietly as he could, he simply couldn't let Balmudo sense his fear......  
  
His very inner lining of his stomach asked his spine for a dance, they did the samba together. "We'll be there.......I'll notify the other boys and tell them all about it." Replied Danny as smoothly as possible, desperately trying to keep his composure.  
  
"Excellent. I trust you and your men won't disappoint me. We'll check to see if you're properly dressed for the occaision. If not.....well, c'est la Sandy, loverboy."  
  
Danny's knuckles whitened on the receiver......  
  
"Approximately 9:00 p.m., at the warehouse, no earlier, no later."  
  
"Not to worry. Just inform the rest of your Scorpions we'll be there."  
  
"Arrivederci, Zuko."  
  
A click came on Danny's receiver much too soon, but nothing he wouldn't expect from the leader of the Scorpions, the most bloodthirsty, predatory gang in Rydell, Calfornia. 


	2. The TBirds Assemble

The telephone rang at a house not too far away......a ginger-haired, lithesome fellow, lounging on the counter nearby like a cougar reposing on a tawny rock high in the plains of Wyoming, picked up the line.....cool as a stealthy mountain feline.....  
  
"Hello?"  
  
Danny was shaky......yet sturdy......his every word almost breathless with fear.....  
  
".......Kenickie?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"It's Danny......"  
  
"Hey Danny, what's the buzz?"  
  
"Sandy.....s..s....Sandy's been kidnapped....."  
  
"Ho, ho, very funny, Danny, that chick we saw at the bonfire?"  
  
"I'm serious, Kenickie....she's been kidnapped....."  
  
"By who?"  
  
Danny desperately tried to get the words out despite his pounding heart and his head swept away in the wonder of it all.  
  
"Bal......Balmudo...."  
  
"Balmudo?! Why would he kidnap her? What does he want? What does he want with Sandy? With us?"  
  
"Round up the other boys, Kenickie.....she may not be alive much longer if we don't meet the Scorpions at the abandoned warehouse on Bleeker Street at nine o' clock...."  
  
Kenickie, Danny's right hand man in the T-Birds, was perturbed. "Man, I **knew** those Scorpions were askin' for trouble! I just knew it!"  
  
"Take it easy, Kenickie.....one false move or flinch and it may be curtains for Sandy...."  
  
"All right....I'll call the other boys..."  
  
"Don't come with your pocket knife.....they want us to come as we are....."  
  
"Black tie party......"  
  
"You bet."  
  
"Black tie? Why?"  
  
"It's either black tie, man or Sandy runs red."  
  
"Holy Toledo......man, why would they want her?"  
  
"Beats me.....all I know is, either we're there at nine or she's gone." 


	3. The Scorpions Assemble

Leonardo Balmudo and his men prepared for the gavotte at hand.....hair was slicked into ducktails, deteriorating leather was slipped on that hadn't been washed for endless days, noisomely scented with black oil....slipping past their parents.....some asleep, some too busy gavotting at a pub or nightspot, some consumed by selfishness enough to simply disacknowledge their existence.....they filed into the street at last.  
  
Cha Cha Di Gregorio awaited her lover, Leo....she had heard of the Laendler to be held in the distant ballroom and longed to come and attend.  
  
She emerged, dressed in pants of black, her second skin.....a red top tighter than cellophane....a scarf trailing behind her....her ginger hair verdant as the hills of California itself.....her lusty face and cheeks illuminating with the spirit of a scorpion, the beloved treasure of a scorpion, indeed.  
  
"Leo! Leo! Oh, Leo, I heard you're going to have a party, tonight! Please say you'll let me attend....."  
  
"Forget it, Cha Cha, this party's all man, no women allowed."  
  
"Oh, Leo, Leo, my darling, mi amore....." she cooed  
  
"Forget it, Cha Cha!" he hissed. "Not everything's about you!"  
  
Cha Cha folded her arms, pouted, and turned away.  
  
The Scorpions jumped into Balmudo's sinister machine....a pitch black convertible illuminated with the fire of a dragon.....in a split second they were concealed by the night at last.....  
  
The TBirds careened down the road to the street that awaited them.....Kenickie's car, a derelict 1940's convertible, yet soon to be the fastest car in the entire town of Rydell, escorted them to the soon-to-be party going on....  
  
"What the hell would Balmudo want with Sandy?" asked a perplexed Kenickie. "I don't get it! Sandy doesn't even know him."  
  
"One thing's real clear, if you're left in the dark, there's bound to be something more behind it......guaranteed", said Danny.  
  
"Why would the Scorpions call us up?" asked Sonny LaTiere, one of the younger, more naive TBirds. "Sandy's all done up in the ropes, and they want us to come without weapons, and it's either nine, lookin' fine, or Sandy, supposedly, spills the wine."  
  
"Scorpions may be wantin' some green, if you know what I mean," said Doody, another younger TBird.  
  
"Green?" asked Kenickie  
  
"Y'know, they may want ransom money."  
  
"Well, my wallet sure is empty," lamented Putzie, another young TBird. "The ol' Frosty Palace up and blew it away all this month."  
  
"Oh, man! I didn't bring any money, either!" said Doody, reaching into his pockets and finding zero change upon yanking them inside out.  
  
"Easy, boys, easy," said Danny. "If there were ransom involved, the Scorpions would have already mentioned it...."  
  
"Put your guard up, boys" said Kenickie flatly. "Balmudo and the boys got some behind-the-scenes action going on, I just know it...." 


	4. The Gavotte Commences

The Gavotte Commences  
  
Bleeker Street appeared before the TBirds not a moment too late, not a moment too soon. Warehouses graced the street from end to end with their raw, haunting, unkempt, unsanitary presence. The TBirds looked around.... 


End file.
